...and it strikes her, as she walks, that borders, like hatred, are exaggerated precisely because otherwise they would cease to exist altogether.

Words are good for saying what things are, but sometimes they don't function for what things aren't.

The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.

I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair. I also think the real bravery comes with those who prepared to go through that door and look at the world in all its grime and torment, and still find something of value, no matter how small.

People are good or half good or a quarter good, and it changes all the time- but even on the best day nobody's perfect.

I have different books for different times of the day, let alone different seasons of the year!

I was fascinated by the lack of a word for a parent who has lost a child. We have no word in English. I thought for sure there'd be a word in Irish but there is none. And then I looked in several other languages and could not find one, until I found the word Sh'khol in Hebrew. I'm still not sure why so many languages don't have a word for this sort of bereavement, this shadowing.